Paddling at the same speed

My son Drew competed in a cardboard boat regatta at our pool recently. If you’re not familiar with the fine arts of cardboard boat regattas, here’s the deal: you build a boat using nothing but cardboard and duct tape, and you race people from one end of the pool to the other. It’s hilarious and fun in all the right ways.

Drew came home having not won but having an absolute blast. I asked him why he didn’t win (cause, you know, I like winning :) and he explained that his teammate wasn’t paddling as fast as him, so they kept turning in his direction rather than going straight. I then explained to Drew that, as the faster paddler its actually his job to make sure he’s rowing at the same speed as his partner. If they aren’t rowing together, they’re not going to achieve the goal.

Leaders, especially entrepreneurs, need to keep this concept in mind. We’re always wanting to go faster, build bigger, crush this, pivot that…and our teams can’t always keep up. It’s our job to make sure that everyone is in alignment and rowing at the same pace. Heck, rowing in the same boat is hard enough sometimes!

Also, side benefit to this analogy, startups can feel like boats made from cardboard and duct tape. Boy can they ever.